SWAMPSCOTT — Birds chirped, branches rustled in the wind, and sunlight glistened off of the pond.
There were no screens, no cell phones, and just the natural world.
That’s what Gloucester artist Leslie Ann Eliet remembers when she looks at one of her pieces currently hanging at ReachArts, a Swampscott nonprofit dedicated to showcasing local and thought-provoking art at 89 Burrill St. Eliet’s exhibit Walking (Ink) Meditations will be opening to the public next month.
“It’s almost like composing music,” said Eliet, examining a piece she did while thinking of a moonlit Lily Pond in Gloucester. “It’s taking thoughts and putting them down on paper and plate.”
For Eliet, her art is a meditative journey. There’s the first phase, the walk, during which she takes in the sights, sounds, and smells of her surroundings, an exercise in mindfulness. There’s the second meditation, when she sits down with a blank sheet, and begins to recall those senses and depicts them on paper. Then, there’s the finished product to be contemplated.
The final piece does not look explicitly like what Eliet saw during one of her nature walks or many travels. The black and white patterns, split here and there with a streak of color, aren’t a perfect picture of a tree or marsh. But that’s not the point.
Instead, Eliet’s art is meant to evoke the feelings she had in a certain place and moment in time.
“I remember certain aspects of it that are meaningful to me,” she said, pointing out a piece of hers about the sun and the moon. “This also has to do right now with the fact we aren’t an agricultural people anymore, but the sun and the moon still have a dramatic effect on us. We shiver in the winter.”
One of Eliet’s pieces recalls the neolithic tombs of Gavrinis in Brittany, France. The ancient tombs are mostly dark, but with entrances built strategically to let in sunlight. In Eliet’s work inspired by Gavrinis, darkness and curling patterns suddenly give way to a beam of yellow.
Eliet received a master’s degree at Tufts University and studied at The School of The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston under Japanese artist Kaji Aso.
The Walking (Ink) Meditations pieces are primarily etchings with added paint, and the Japanese influence is apparent in Eliet’s exhibit. There are 17 pieces composed of attached panels, some of which fold in an accordion-like manner, much like a Japanese byobu, or windscreen, used to separate small spaces in a home in Japan.
“(In Japanese art), you’re able to leave empty spaces,” Eliet said. “Western art is so hung up on filling every space.”
Also available at the exhibit are books of Eliet’s work. The books are right in line with her philosophy — she wants people to pause, look at something for a period of time and contemplate it, not just glimpse for a second at a hanging painting in an art gallery.
ReachArts’ Ingrid Pichler suggests people interested in Walking (Ink) Meditations or any of ReachArts other programming check the website at www.reacharts.org. Because of the current COVID-19 pandemic, many events have been canceled or postponed.
Right now, the exhibit is scheduled to open April 3 and 4 from noon to 3 p.m., April 5 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., April 10 and 11 from noon to 3 p.m., April 17 and 18 from noon to 3 p.m., and April 19 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
An “Opening Reception” gathering will be held for Walking (Ink) Meditations on April 17 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
